In a recently published book, I came across some exercises with interesting names such as fishbone diagrams, lotus flowers and clustering. As I used these exercises in my classes, I noticed that students were interested. They said more and wrote more. They enjoyed expressing their ideas and sharing them in groups. They were no longer passively waiting for the bell , but actively taking part in the lesson. I find that creativity can act as a way to increase participation and improve fluency.
Creativity has become a popular word in recent years. Scholars in arts, psychology, business, education and science are all working to get a deeper understanding of it. Robert J. Stemberg is a creativity specialist and Yale professor of psychology. He defines creativity as “the ability to produce work that is both new (original) and appropriate(applicable to the situation ) ”. this definition is useful, as we want our students to use language in a new way and to use it correctly and properly. Mot scholars say there are two types of creativity: big “C” creativity and small “c” creativity. Big “C” creativity refers to genius level thinking that results in artistic masterpieces and scientific breakthroughs. Small “c” creativity refers to everyday level thinking that can be used in any situation our emphasis is on the latter. While it goes without saying that any of our students could go on to be the next Picasso or Edison, our aim is to help students produce more ideas and use language in a new way.
小题1:The underlined words “waiting for the bell ” in the first paragraph probably means______.
A．longing for a phone call
B．hoping to have a bell
C．expecting the end of the class
D．waiting to speak in the class小题2: It can be inferred from the passage that the author thinks the exercises in the book were _____.
A．popular
B．useful
C．scientific
D．creative小题3:When you use a familiar word in a new way, you are ________.
A creative in the sense of big “C” creativity.
B. creative in the sense of small “c” creativity..
C. not creative in the sense of big “C” creativity..
D. not creative in the sense of small “c” creativity.
小题4:The main purpose of the passage is to _________.
A. show how useful the book is.
B, explain what creativity
C. discuss how one can be creative
D. tell what reaching aims at
小题1:C
小题2:D
小题3:B
小题4:B
小题1:词义推断题。waiting for the bell字面意思是“等待铃声”。前后文讲到学生们对新的练习很有兴趣，积极地参与。说明原来上课不积极，因此等待的铃声是下课铃，选C。
小题2:细节推断题。第一段讲了作者在书中发现的练习让学生很感兴趣，他得出的结论是创新是一个增加参与和流利程度的方法。因此，他认为这些练习是创新的。
小题3:判断题。文中第二段“Small ‘c’ creativity refers to everyday level thinking that can be used in any situation.”意思是“小创新指的是普通水平思考的创新。”题目讲到的是“一个常用词的新用法”，与小创新讲到的内容符合，因此B正确。
小题4:主旨题。本文第一段先举了一个上课创新的例子，第二段讲述了创新的含义、创新的两种类型等内容，因此B正确。